Monday, January 23, 2006

SCENARIOS FOR THE ONSLAUGHT OF THE NEW WORLD WAR

How the Fourth World War may begin, from London Telegraph's imperial chronicler Niall Ferguson (he predicts 2007, and the gist of the article seems mostly to be - why wait unti then? He sounds impatient, like he's ready, like he's looking forward to a nuclear stoush. Has Ferguson been reading too much Tom Clancy? :

"The devastating nuclear exchange of August 2007 represented not only the failure of diplomacy, it marked the end of the oil age. Some even said it marked the twilight of the West. Certainly, that was one way of interpreting the subsequent spread of the conflict as Iraq's Shi'ite population overran the remaining American bases in their country and the Chinese threatened to intervene on the side of Teheran."

But here is a piece from Justin Raimondo that tears absolute shreds off Niall Ferguson's Scenario For A Fourth World War, and hammers him for getting in so early with the World War 4 propaganda effort,

"A major element of war propaganda," writes Raimondo, "is the conjuration of the enemy as a fearsone, fanatical, and fantastical demon imbued with enormous power – and this image of the nuclear-crazed mullahs, led by a man with all the public relations panache of Pat Robertson is the new bogeyman being touted by the War Party. Ahmadinejad is the new Saddam, a much easier target than the mild-mannered, American-educated ophthalmologist who rules Syria, and a potent symbol of everything the neocons want us to hate – and, subsequently, destroy."

"If the 'Great War' is coming, then it's because we have been set up for it. Wouldn't this account for the air of inevitability that Ferguson imparts to the unfolding crisis over Iran's nuclear power program?

"...the admission that Israel already produced nuclear weapons, and they are aimed straight at Tehran....there is no suggestion by Ferguson that Israel must disarm, that Israel's defiance of international norms and conventions is being appeased, or that the Iranians have anything to fear from an Israeli nuclear first strike."